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March 04, 2005
My Officemate is a Pilot
I share an office at work with a cool guy who happens to be a pilot. I've been thinking about getting a pilot's license lately, so when I mentioned this to him, he kindly invited me along for a flight. Today was a good day to fly, so that's what we did.
Now, I'll admit that I was a bit nervous before we even got to the airport, but surprisingly, that nervousness went away by the time we finished the pre-flight plane inspection. I think it was his attention to detail and meticulousness in following the procedures that made me feel safer. We were flying in a Piper Archer II, in case you're wondering.
Anyhow, all things considered, I got to try my hand at flying the plane! Not taking off or landing, mind you, just doing some simple turns. That part was so cool that I don't even know how to convey that here in a mere blog. Before the flight, I was thinking that I'm asked to try out the controls, I would panic and send us in a huge dive down to the ground. When I actually took the controls, though, I was so totally calm that I surprised myself. This is a good thing.
How did controlling the plane feel? Well, kind of surreal. I felt a bit disoriented, trying to look at both the gauges and the ground below us at the same time. In a way, the plane fought my control a lot less than I expected it would, but in another way, it fought more than I expected too. I know that sounds confusing, but you'd really have to try it to know what I'm talking about. I was impressed by how my officemate communicated with the traffic controls people. He sounded so professional that I'm glad he didn't ask me to say anything to them. Haha.
Part of getting a pilot's license is being able to do solo flights. Before today, that prospect scared my very much. I'm glad to say that I feel a lot less anxious about that now that I've experienced first-hand a procedure of flight. It's not that knowing about a process alone makes things less scary, it's just that sometimes we're all most afraid of the unknowns.
Posted by Kathy at March 4, 2005 08:55 PM